


Cross Check Deleted Scenes

by TrueMeg



Series: Cross Check Fic [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Hockey, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Athletes, Deleted Scenes, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hockey, Hockey AU, Injury Recovery, Junior Hockey, M/M, Major Character Injury, Sports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2020-12-17 08:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21051098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrueMeg/pseuds/TrueMeg
Summary: While Alec and Magnus' secret relationship was outed during a prestigious hockey tournament, a few things happened in between the madness.Also known as: the deleted scenes from the fic known as Cross Check.





	1. Scouting

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you've read the actual fic, Cross Check, before reading these scenes, but if you haven't, please do so! These won't make too much sense if you haven't read it!
> 
> The tags for this apply to some scenes but not all of them. If you want specifics about which scenes they apply to or more details about them, feel free to get in touch with me. 
> 
> So, this first scene takes place during chapter 9 of Cross Check, after the scene in the hotel hallway and before Alec joins his team to watch the final game.

"Alexander Lightwood!"

Alec was in a rush to get to his seat, and given his past interactions with strangers this past week, he wasn't too keen on hearing his name being shouted in the lobby of the hockey complex. He turned around to see, in the sparse crowd of hockey fans mingling around before the game, a small woman stepping through the crowd toward him. She had pin-straight blonde hair that was pulled perfectly back behind her head, and she wore a dark gray blazer with matching trousers, and she also carried a leather folder in her hands. When she made eye contact with Alec, her expression brightened in a way Alec wasn't thrilled with. Either she wasn't in on how he was outed as extremely gay recently, or she was eager to join in on a hate-train. Though Alec figured someone who presented herself like this wasn't the kind of person to chase him down and call him a slur in public.

She stopped in front of him. "I'm so glad I caught you," she said. 

"Uh, I was just... going to watch the game," Alec replied. He wasn't the best at conversing with strangers.

"Of course you were. I was going to stay for the game as well but unfortunately, something came up and I have to leave now."

"Uh..." Alec shook his head. "Sorry but who are you?"

"Oh, right. My name's Lydia Branwell. I'm a scouting agent for the New York Rangers."

Alec's mind suddenly went blank, with only a few passing thoughts flashing to the forefront of his brain, though none of them had any kind of coherency. A few noises sputtered out of him. It was somehow making Lydia laugh, but only making Alec's cheeks feel very hot.

Alec pulled his hands out of his pockets and straightened his shoulders. "Sorry. Um...it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Lydia replied, a laugh peppering her sentence. 

Leave it to Alec to get completely flustered in front of a professional hockey scout. "What can I do for you?" Alec asked. 

"I think this is more like me doing something for you," Lydia said. "I've been watching you play. I'd love to keep in touch and talk about potential future plans for you."

"You mean... like in the league?"

"That's the end goal," she said. "It's my job to help get you there. If you're interested in that?"

"Yeah, of course," Alec practically blurted out. "Me of all people?" 

He didn't mean to say that second part out loud. The last thing he wanted to do was undermine himself right to a league scout.

But Lydia didn't seem put off by it. "You're a really good player, Alexander."

"Call me Alec, please."

"Alright, Alec," Lydia smiled. "Believe it or not, you're not the first kid to ask me that question. Doubt like that holds players back. So does overconfidence. The players in the middle have a lot of success. It seems like you're in that middle. You know you're good, Alec. But you don't let your ego play for you."

Alec was, once again, rendered at a loss for words. "But we lost two games in a row"

Lydia chuckled again. Thank God she was working easily around Alec's current lapse of social and professional skills. "Winning helps my job, certainly," she explained. "But as a player, you're what we're looking for. Win or lose a few games."

Alec relaxed at that. Of course it made sense, but it was nice to see someone professional tell him that.

"Still in?" Lydia asked.

"Absolutely."

"Great. Unfortunately I have to run, but I'll give you my card and you can give me your contact information, and I'll be in touch."

Alec wrote down his phone number and email for Lydia, and took her card in exchange. She said a quick goodbye before she hurried off and out of the building, leaving Alec there alone. His thoughts were still a jumble of things that were barely coherent.

Did he really just get scouted to go for the NHL?

Nothing was set in stone, but there was a chance. And right in this moment, there were more important things to worry about. Alec turned to finally head into the arena.

A chance was there.


	2. Residual Pains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for this chapter for description of a major injury. If you read the original fic, you know what I'm talking about! Message me if you want specifics!
> 
> This scene takes place a couple months before the epilogue.

Magnus slouched in his chair while the beginnings of tiredness started to creep up behind his eyes. The faint hint of pain deep in his head, something that didn’t often give him a problem while he sat in front of a computer most of his work day. But every once in a while, he didn’t get enough sleep, and the strain of the blue light caught up to him much faster. 

Maybe he didn’t always have to stay awake later than normal waiting for Alec to text him. There had never been an issue with it in the past. But he felt more at ease seeing the “landed safely” text from his boyfriend.

Fiance, now. His husband, as of this upcoming summer. 

Magnus set his pen down and stood up. He crossed to his office door and glanced out the balcony windows that overlooked the rink below. Jace’s class was finishing up, the last of the tiny little six year olds leaving the ice with him. 

A few hours still remained in his day. And it was certainly dragging. A nagging thought kept jumping to the forefront of his brain. Just leave early. 

No, he still had things to do.

It could wait until tomorrow, it’s nothing urgent.

No, best to just get as much done now.

You own the complex, you’re the boss, you can leave.

That mentality never got him anywhere. 

He went back to his desk and sat down. Magnus was planning to stay until after the evening skating class got started. He could be home in time to catch most of Alec’s game on ESPN tonight. The Rangers were playing the Maple Leafs tonight. Then he was off to Pittsburgh after that. Once Alec was back in New York in a couple weeks, Magnus was going to take the train to the city to see him for a long weekend. 

All the more reason for Magnus to frontload his work now, before that. As much as his brain was begging him to cut out early today.

He picked up his pen after several moments of zoning out, ready to get back to his spreadsheet when a loud bang came from the hallway. It was followed by a familiar voice yelling “fuck!” Magnus heard some more vague stumbling as he got up from his desk again. 

He pulled his door open, and sure enough, Jace was at the other end of the hall at the top of the stairs. Boxes stacked against the wall were now strewn into the walkway, with some papers that had been among them settling on the floor. Jace was on his hands and knees, and Magnus could see Jace slowly getting his legs underneath himself again.

“What the hell was that?” Magnus asked as he approached the scene. 

“What does it look like?” Jace snapped. From his angle, Magnus could only see the top of Jace’s head. And Jace didn’t appear to be in too big of a rush to get up.

Magnus had a good guess of what that meant. 

They’d been over this a few times before. Sometimes flares of old pains and numbness from Jace’s old back injury came back. Magnus knew by now two things. One, that Jace hated the question “are you okay?” And two, Jace was a stubborn asshole who always insisted he was fine and usually refused any help.

“I’ll sort out the mess while you sort out...yourself,” Magnus said.

With a groan of obvious pain, Jace finally pulled himself up to his feet, the movement looking like all of the force came entirely from his shoulders, and his lower half was pulled along like it was attached by strings and forced to comply. He swayed for a second before bracing his hand against the wall. “I’m good.”

Magnus rolled his eyes while Jace wasn’t looking at him. “No you’re not.”

Jace took a few shaky steps away from Magnus. “I swear, I’m fine.”

“You can barely walk.”

“Says who?”

Magnus bit the inside of his cheek, holding back calling Jace some kind of unprofessional nickname. Though, it wouldn’t be the first time the two of them had that kind of exchange in the workplace. 

“You can go home, you know,” Magnus said. 

“No,” Jace said through gritted teeth as he continued shuffling away from Magnus. “I have a class tonight.” Jace braced himself against his office door. Magnus could see his face scrunch in pain as he opened it and disappeared inside. 

Magnus approached his door. Where Magnus kept his own office organized and neat, Jace’s office was a little more disheveled: leafs of paper stacked haphazardly on his desk, a locker in the corner hanging open with corners of clothes hanging out. The one thing they had in common was the few pieces of memorabilia from their old Junior hockey days. One picture on Jace’s shelf was a picture of Jace and Alec in their Cyclones jerseys.

Before Jace had to deal with all the back injury bullshit.

Jace was in the process of lowering himself onto his couch. “I’m fine, Magnus,” Jace said before Magnus could say anything. “I’ll take a nap and I’ll be fine before the last class tonight. No big deal, right?”

Jace was laying on his stomach, his face turned into the couch as he settled in with a huff. Jace hadn’t looked at Magnus during this whole thing. That’s something Magnus picked up on in their last couple years working together. Jace could look anyone in the eye when he talked to them, feeling definite in any situation. Except ones like this, when Jace tried to hide his pain and weakness, when he didn’t feel so definite. When his wall decided to come down on its own to leave Jace with the pain of it. 

“No. You’re done for the day. I’m cancelling your class tonight and I’m taking you home.”

“Magnus…”

“Jace, put your pride out of the way. You need to go home.”

They stayed in silence for a few moments. Magnus was ready to hear Jace protest again.

But finally, Jace raised his head. “Fine.”

Magnus grabbed Jace’s jacket from the hook beside him and tossed it at him, landing it on Jace’s shoulders as he started getting up again. 

“I’ll meet you downstairs. Swallow a little bit more of your pride and take the damn elevator, okay?”

If he needed a reason to cut his work day short, one certainly stumbled his way at the right time.

* * *

Magnus had watched Jace’s injury happen. That one regionals tournament in high school. It felt like the most important thing in the world, but of course looking back it was just a small blip in their lives. A blip that defined the rest of Jace’s life. 

Jace on that breakaway with the puck, the crowd cheering him on. He probably would’ve scored too, the Cyclones had been the better team than the Devils anyway. Though, that was assuming the Devils actually wanted to play a clean game of hockey. And that was anything but their plan. 

The image of it got stuck in Magnus’ head occasionally. Two opposing players shoving themselves into Jace, coordinated to the second. Jace coming off of his feet and twisting in the air before falling to the ice with a crack that dropped the arena into silence. Jace being pretty much lifeless on the ice, and Magnus hearing Alec’s gut-wrenching cries of his brother’s name. All of those images in his head and replaying on a sickening loop…

“Fuck! Will you chill?”

Magnus blinked and realized he’d taken a turn too sharply. He glanced at Jace in his passenger’s seat, one hand white-knuckling a handle on the door, his face grimacing in pain again. It wasn’t from Magnus’ driving, but one reckless turn probably didn’t help.

“Sorry,” Magnus murmured. “Zoned out a second.”

Magnus trained his eyes on the road, but he felt Jace looking at him while silence filled the car. Magnus tried focusing on the road, despite the image of that fall still playing in his head, and the acute prickling awareness that Jace kept glancing at him. 

“You know I don’t remember this happening, right?”

Magnus didn’t say anything at first. Did Jace know Magnus had been thinking of that moment?

“I remember the game. Getting the puck and going down the ice...after that, nothing…”

“I think that’s common,” Magnus said. “You did have a concussion too.”

Jace shrugged. “I can’t even remember it and yet I still deal with it  _ constantly _ …”

Magnus knew Jace was exaggerating out of frustration. It was no longer a constant ordeal, not like immediately after the injury. Jace was walking again within a few weeks, and healed enough to play his final season on the Cyclones the following year. Not enough though for Jace to chase the same future Alec did. The dreams of going pro or even playing in college weren’t possible. So the last few years, Jace worked with Magnus at the hockey complex. Magnus was used to the occasional days where Jace had to stay home from work, or cut out of a practice early because of the pain in his back, or numbness in his legs. Never frequent enough to be a serious issue but present enough that both Jace and Magnus worked around it.

And present enough that Magnus knew Alec still dealt with the guilt. Six years later, and Alec still thought he should’ve done something different. Or it wasn’t fair that he was now a professional hockey player while Jace was robbed of that chance. 

“All for a stupid tournament…” Jace continued. “Well...not so stupid. It got Alec to where he is now so I guess it wasn’t for nothing.”

Something twisted in Magnus’ gut. Maybe this wasn’t his place to say but he couldn’t help himself now. “Speaking of Alec…”

Jace turned his head to Magnus. “I know what you’re going to say.”

Magnus’ gave a confused look. “What am I going to say?”

“That Alec thinks this was his fault. Or he feels guilty that he’s a pro and I was left like this.”

“You weren’t ‘left like this’ Jace. Don’t say it like that.”

“Okay fine. But I’m still correct, right?”

Magnus twisted the corner of his mouth. “Yes. He’s talked to me about it. I never said anything because it’s not my place to. It’s between you two. But I also didn’t think it was an issue because you two are still on good terms. Well, I thought you were...”

“We still are,” Jace said. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

“Because you sounded angry while we were discussing this,” Magnus replied, stealing a glance at Jace. 

Jace smirked. “That’s just me being a dick when I’m in pain.”

Magnus held himself back from commenting on that. 

“For the record, no I don’t blame Alec. Obviously. Maybe there was a part of me that resented him a little when he was starting his pro career and I was still using a wheelchair. But I don’t feel like that anymore. I’m so proud of him, and I love my brother. Sure, I did want what Alec has, but I’m happy with what I’m doing now. As much shit as I give you,” Jace said, making Magnus chuckle, “I do like doing what I do.”

A tension that had gathered in Magnus’ shoulders started to fade away as he listened to Jace. There was a maturity in the explanation that honestly, Magnus didn’t expect. He should have known that, of course. Given how passionate Jace was when it came to teaching those skating classes, or assisting in coaching the hockey teams that played at the complex. He was even good at the business side of the complex, all things that helped Magnus immensely. 

If Jace wasn’t happy where he was, Magnus realized that Jace would have made it known by now.

“You should tell Alec this,” Magnus said.

Jace sighed. “I guess so. I thought if I ignored it and acted fine, he’d realize I don’t feel that way.”

“This is Alec we’re talking about. You know him, he takes on needless guilt, and the need to always do the right thing…”

“Yeah but have you met the two of us together?” Jace asked. “We’re not exactly great at talking about emotions.”

“Fair point.”

Magnus finally pulled up outside Jace’s townhouse and put the car in park. Jace slowly grabbed his bag and took his painful time getting out. 

“Jace,” Magnus said before he fully exited, “I’m glad you’re happy. Despite the shit you’ve been through.”

Jace smiled. “Thanks.” He turned and finally got himself up on shaky legs.

“Talk to Alec,” Magnus said.

Jace slammed the door. “Okay Mom.” 

“Text me how you’re doing in the morning!” Magnus said, partially out of concern for his future brother-in-law, partially just to chide him.

Without missing a beat or turning around as he limped to his front door, Magnus heard Jace yell back a firm “no!”

Magnus shook his head. He knew he’d hear from Jace in the morning. 

He pulled his car away from the curb and headed home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on twitter @true_lightwood and tumblr @truelightwood :)

**Author's Note:**

> The tag you can use is #CrossCheckFic on twitter, and you can find me by using that tag, or @true_lightwood on twitter and @truelightwood on tumblr


End file.
